In the folding paper box machine art, folder-gluers are well known to produce flat folded boxes, called "flats" herein, at high speed from flat blanks, by folding and gluing the flaps, tabs and panels thereof and delivering the adhered, collapsed flats to the upper stretch of the endless apron of a stacker. At the exit end of the stacker, it has been the custom for several employees to seek to keep up with the production of the folder-gluer by repeatedly manually removing successive individual "packets" or "lifts" and carrying them over to empty packing cases for deposit one layer, or several layers, to the case. When the flats are shingled and recumbent, with, for example, each fiftieth flat counted and projecting slightly from the line of flats, it will be understood that the operator must place the hand under the flat at the point she believes she can easily carry, raise the flats to upstand on lower edge, compress the lift and try to bodily transport it to an empty case without dropping it on the floor. This continual manual lifting is not only arduous, but if a lift is dropped the stacker continues delivering flats until the entire line may have to be stopped.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,549 to Pressig of May 21, 1974 an apparatus for handling collapsed boxes is disclosed in which a sled and skates with a brake is located in front of the leading box to advance therewith up to a fixed barrier and the segregation element is a plate poised above the path to descend downwardly across the entire path of the flats.
With the fixed stop of this device covering the entire leading flat and the segregation element covering the entire trailing flat, it would be difficult for an operator to grasp the packet, lift or slug between her hands and slide it further along the path. An unillustrated ram is apparently intended to move the captive packet sidewise of the path.